Association studies implicate multiple PDZ domain protein (MPDZ/MUPP1) sequence and/or expression in risk for alcoholism in humans and ethanol withdrawal (EW) in mice, but confirmation has been hindered by the dearth of targeted genetic models.
Given the growing body of evidence that the syntenic region of human chromosome 9p and human MPDZ gene are associated with alcohol abuse, our results may facilitate research on alcohol dependence and associated withdrawal in clinical populations.
However, a global test of haplotype association revealed a significant difference in haplotype frequencies between alcohol-dependent subjects without AWS and Coriell controls (p = 0.015), suggesting a potential role of MPDZ in alcoholism and/or related phenotypes other than AWS.